Spark your kid’s science interest through exploration. Let them play and have fun with cool and easy experiments at home. Don’t worry about the materials. Most likely, you already have them in your pantry or storage. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to find the link for the free printable PDF file for the experiments.
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Sometimes being a friend just means being there to listen.
“Live with a greater significance than achievements, accolades, or an impressive bio.” -@timtebow
What does this mean to me? Being a teen is not easy. You are continuously surrounded by different types of pressure. I personally try to always give my best in whatever I do. I want to achieve something that will not only benefit me but also my fellow teens as well as my community. To me, it is more than just the feeling of fulfilment for having achieved something. It is more on doing what I can do to give back to my community.
That is the reason why I wanted to join #pbbkumuteens. I wanted to use that platform to spread #mentalhealthawareness among the teens especially in the Philippines. I have noticed that to these days, talking about mental illness is still a taboo among #Filipinos. It shouldn’t be. It is critical that we allow those people suffering especially the teens to talk about their condition without #prejudice.
I watched Ms. @piawurtzbach ‘s @ted talk about the same issue. It was a blessing that I was prompted by my phone to her video because we share the same thought. We need to help make people aware that #depression, #bipolar disorder and other #mentalhealth problems exist. We should not dismiss the topic when people talk about it. We should support those individuals who suffer in silence.
Here in the U.S., we have everything that we need for support. Everyone have access to it. In some countries, professional support is not available for everyone. What the families can do to help is as simple as listening and being there for their loved one. Do not dismiss their issues when they open up.
Make them feel that they are being heard. Be genuinely interested in knowing and learning more about their mental health issues. Learn ways to support them. You can do a lot to help.
We need to think beyond ourselves. We need to care for everyone else in this world. Together we can all make a difference. #inclusion #teentalk #tedtalk
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Life is a journey. In this journey we all go through different phases. Being a teen is pivotal. It is at this stage when we need to seriously think of our life goals. It is also critical that along with those goals we set a timeline and a solid plan on how to hit our target.
We all want to be successful. Our own definition of success will set us apart from the rest. For most teens, success could mean finishing high school, getting a perfect GPA, winning sport competitions, having an important role in the school play, getting a job, starting a small business, etc.
There are so many things that we can achieve as teens but there are also tons of stressors and distractions surrounding us. But, if you keep your eyes on your goals then it is not impossible to be the success that you want to be.
Have you ever wondered what microorganism grows in a culture media if you swab your skin? We did just that! We collected our own samples by rolling a swab on our arms. We then inoculated culture media plates using the swabs.
Ideally, we should have used a sterile swab to make sure that we won’t get any contaminants in our culture. But, this experiment was meant as an introduction. A way to encourage our little one to love science. Something that will spark interest.
This experiment is also a good way for parents to reinforce how important it is that we follow good hygiene. Through this we can teach our kids that there are living organisms that exist but are invisible to our eyes. Some organisms are helpful to our body but some are pathogenic. Thus, hand washing is extremely important.
Materials used:
1. Regular Q-tips or Sterile Swabs
2. Sterile culture media
Our samples were taken from:
1. Frequently touch surfaces like door knobs, refrigerator door handle, etc. (Environmental)
2. Skin (Biological)
Observation after few days:
We saw some growth on the plates. The colonies that grew in the culture plates were varied. This experiment made Esperanza see what is normally invisible to her eyes.
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Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the BRAVEST of them all?
Today’s world is different from how it was in the past but fairy tales still capture our hearts. Come on! Parents, please help me here. Just say yes! We all know Anna and Elsa. We know Moana too! Right?
We can’t really deny that fairy tales teach kids important lessons in life. Boys and girls alike love to watch fairy tales because it brings hope. HOPE for a new beginning or a better ending.
As of the moment our little one’s favorite princess is Mirabel. That is due to the fact that she watched “Encanto” on Thanksgiving day for the first time. Of course we needed to watch it with her more than 10 times in 2021 and we are still counting. Before that movie came out, her favorites were Anna and Elsa.
She also love some old timers like Cinderella and Snow White. She loves how the dwarves received Snow White in their home. She knew that there has to be a special place for Snow White after her wicked stepmother’s plot. Kindness will always prevail.
Although she raised a question about the dwarves allowing a stranger in their home, she also believe that they did the right thing. She believes in kindness. Our girls have always been warned and are still being warned about the risk of talking to strangers.
We taught our girls to be kind and respectful to everyone they meet. But, we also made them aware that not all people intend to do good. They must learn how to safeguard themselves against the bad elements in this world.
Being kind and nice is important but learning to decipher an individual’s real intention before trusting that person is also critical. Fairy tales teaches us that. Snow White taught us that we cannot trust everyone. At times, not even the people who are close to us.
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Our 5-year old had solid, liquid and gas topic for her homeschool science curriculum. She is a hands-on learner. To help her absorb better, we decided to do an experiment with her. We wanted this lesson to be extremely fun for her. As parents, we believe that the easiest way to help little kids retain information is to incorporate learning with play.
Indeed we were right! It was not just our girl who had a blast while doing this experiment. We did too! We observed how liquid turned to solid. We experimented on adding external factors to turn solid back into liquid. We also watched liquid produced gas. Santi and I could only wish we had the same choices when we were kids. We probably wouldn’t have to stare on the ceiling waiting for the bell to ring.
Kidding aside. Science is cool. This experiment was perfect for our little one to love science even more. She was very enthusiastic during the entire activity. She asked valid questions. Some of her questions were easy, we were able to answer immediately but some we had to search for answers online with her.
It was a messy activity but it was well worth it. Let your kids play and learn. Get their hands or fingernails dirty. It is okay. The most exciting part that really got our girl was digging and breaking the ice cubes to see the mystery toy inside. She couldn’t stop talking about our experiment for weeks.
How do you keep your little one’s attention during homeschool? We use a combination of modules and several curricula for our kids’ schooling. We did tons of research before we made our decision to homeschool our 9th grader and 1st grader. It took us just about the entire 2020 to make tables of pros and cons.
We did comparisons between traditional school, online school and several homeschool curricula. After all that hard work, we talked to our kids to ask for their opinion. Our 9th grader provided us more light about why we needed to homeschool.
Our first grader has been homeschooled since she was two years old. She also went to an early childhood program for few weeks. She did not like it. She wanted to stay home and continue what we have been doing. Yes, we started teaching her early but we did not force her. She lead us.
We used our observations of her during play time to guide us in teaching her. We realized that she was interested in language arts even before her 2nd birthday. Since then, we focused on what sparked her interest most. Now that she is five years old, she is into science. When she gets tired completing her workbooks in her other classes, she will ask for a break.
When given her break time, she would request for a quick science experiment. It is a good way to keep her attention and focus in our homeschool activities. A quick science break always give her more energy to finish all of her daily homeschool tasks.
Science lessons does not have to be extremely serious. It does not have to be boring. Kids love to play. Let them play and learn. Example, for this science class, we made sure our girl uses all of her senses. The topic was about animal homes and habitats. We incorporated sensory play to keep her attention span longer.
Research studies have proven that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain which aid a child’s ability to accomplish complex learning tasks. That is why we use sensory items in almost all of our activities.
For this lesson we used:
1. Animal figurines from Amazon.
2. Play sand from Blain’s Farm and Fleet.
3. Kinetic sand from Target.
4. Leaves from various trees that we picked from our nature walk the day before.
5. Wood cuttings from Hobby Lobby.
6. Rocks and stones of various size, shape and texture from Dollar Tree.
7. Brown and green artificial moss from the arts supply at Dollar Tree.
This activity was fun for Esperanza. She did not feel the pressure of learning. We loved that we were able to teach her by telling stories as we went through the lesson. She thought she was just playing. She paid attention to the facts we presented as she played.
When asked about the different animals that live in certain habitats on a later date, she was able to remember everything. Getting positive outcome from our activities make us feel that we made the right decision to educate our kids at home.
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